While hunting last night I watched a small doe come in and she was limping very bad. I would have passed on her but I decided to take her because limp was that bad. She went down about 50 yards from my stand with in seconds. I gathered my gear and went to dress her out. I pulled her to a better place and when doing so I decided to turn her over to see why she was limping. She had been shot with a rifle in the front of the chest and it came out the shoulder. It was green, infectedand it stunk like you would not believe. The leg was just dangling there. By alrights this deer should have been dead due to the shot even though it was a poor shot choice bywhomever. My question is "Do you tag the deer or leave it?"

I will be honest and tell you I moved thedeer to a different part of my prop and left her there. I am bothered by this but I don't believe this deer could have been salvaged.

Maybe I missed something.

You killed it? Should have tagged it.

The shoulder was infected bad? What was wrong with the backstraps and hams??

I have enough doe tags each year that I wouldn't mind using one on wasted meat just to keep it legal. I too would kill the doe to end her suffering.

The whole side of the deer was infected not just the shoulder. I guess I didnt put that in there. Maybe I should have tagged it. I didn't feel like I was doing anything illegal. My first thought was that poordeer was walking around since gun season and I was just happy to have put her down. I may have been wrong not to tag her.

I understand the delima. I would have done the same thing. You put her out of her misery. Legaly you should have tagged her, but I dont blame you for not. She would have died because of the infection anyway. Tough call. I did something similar years ago. After season, I see a doe come limping by. She was sick, thin, and looked horrible. I had a gun with me, so I put her down. I could have gotten in trouble if caught, but I couldnt live with myself If I had just let her die a miserable death.

Sounds like you did the right thing. Will your game dept give you another tag if you explained the situation??

Gotcha.

Personally I would have tagged her, but I have unlimited doe tags here.

Where I live in WI you can get as many doe tags as you want. I even could have tagged her to earn my buck for next year, but that wasnt what this was about. I felt bad after seeing how bad she was and was glad that she was done suffering.

I would have tagged her, but if you are not going to use the meat (and I certainly would not), at least the coyotes are getting an easy meal tonight. That is where she would have ended up soon anyway. Best you put her out of her misery.

If I wasn't gonna tag her.....I would have done what you did and kept my mouth shut.